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A chat with 30 year dairy man, Terry Jones about the so-called ag gag law. “I testified both in the Senate and the House in favor of the ag security bill and I think that is one of the issues that we have is that people think it is a gag law when in reality it is a security and privacy issue. I have a neighbor who is a dyed in the wool animal activist and environmental rights individual and he pounds me to death. I have spent over $60,000 in legal fees trying to protect my operation from harassment that I get from these individuals. What we need is the ability to run our operations without the fear of losing our market. Let’s say a guy goes down the highway and he gets a traffic ticket. Do they take his car away? No. What these people are doing has nothing to do with animal-rights and everything to do with money. They are after the public image that they can get from these in order to line their pockets. They aren’t interested in the health of the animal. If they were they would be willing to work with us and the proof is, when they did this thing with Bettencourt, they didn’t go to the authorities right away. They waited until it was politically expedient for them to bring this to the public’s view and then crucify individual. This is a law that is well overdue as a tool to not hide what we do but to protect what we do and that is to provide a quality product at a price that the American consumer can afford and a safe product.Due to sentiments such as that Idaho enacted its ag gag law in 2014 after Mercy for Animals released video footage showing alleged abuses at the Bettencourt dairy farm. Last week, a federal appeals court judge struck down provisions of Idaho’s “ag-gag” saying the law suppresses free speech.